Image a world where at home you use your own energy, where you are totally off the grid… it's more doable then you might think. There are a couple of ways you can accomplish this… and the best thing about it is, most of the technology is here already.
- Solar Absorbing Roof Shingles – this is becoming a very hot product. There are solar panels that have been developed just for this cause. They're hardened material that will withstand everything the weather can throw it's way… snow might still be an issue. There are studies confirming that on an average house the roof can provide up to 30% of the household energy, very very exciting.
Resources:
http://www.oksolar.com
http://www.opticalenergy.com
http://www.uni-solar.com - Photovoltaic Paint – this one might be a little ways away but there studies currently going on paint that can absorb suns energy, think of the possibilities… you get our your spray gun pain the whole house and now every surface of your house is generating energy, the possibilities are endless here. This can be applied to any surface and even indoors, maybe they can also throw in the nano technology that can reflect certain wave lengths so we can switch paint color of our house with a click of a mouse
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Now this would be an idea.
Resources:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com
http://www.memagazine.org - Photovoltaic cells – show in the picture above are new cells that work 25% better then traditional cells and they're transparent, great technology and guess what's the best application…. got it yet? Windows!!! So picture your house now you got your roof producing energy, your paint on the outside and inside producing energy and now you have transparent cells acting as windows producing even more energy
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Sounds like a green house to me… on a typical house this might have a smaller effect but for large office buildings that don't have the paint or rooftop to use the technologies from points #1 & #2 this would be a great alternative, think of all those glass buildings going up in every downtown core.
Resources:
http://www.newenergy.org
http://www.globalphotonic.com
http://www.futurepundit.com - Wind Troubines – While we're at it lets throw in one or two small wind turbines in the backyard. I was surprised to see on the Canadian Tire flyer last week a full two page spread dedicated to wind turbines alone
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$ 999 will get you a 1000 watt generating turbine that works 24/7 no matter if the sun is over your house or not.
Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.treehugger.com
http://www.canren.gc.ca
Now this would be an idea.
With all these alternatives to oil and the grid this is a very exiting time, these produces can get expensive but over the years they will pay for themselves, and hopefully if the governments wake up and shake their dependency on oil, they can help by providing more direction and show more responsibility.